A "Massive" Saint Valentine Day.
On a cold and wet Sunday evening on the most romantic day of the year, thousands of people chose to be spellbound by the smooth, sultry and scintillating sounds of Massive Attack live at Geox Arena in Padova rather than a romantic meal in a restaurant over trickly candlelight. The impressive concert hall was well on the way to full by the time we rushed in to see the award winning Scottish hip-hop/tribal act Young Fathers open. Visceral, snarling, pounding drums to a sensory explosion, the three men were an excellent starter to proceedings, a valentines day massacre of a performance, showcasing early anthems including ” I Heard “, “Get Up” alongside new material from sophomore release “White Men are Black Men Too” they eschewed a sonic cacophony of anger, a la Death Grips boiling over and spilling out onto a streetfight with Public Enemy. It was easy to see why messers Massive Attack recently labelled them “The best fucking band in the World”.
© Andrea Meli
A massive screen bellowed a lonely figure in luminous white, eyes covered, head wrapped in a turban, a provocative political entrée of what was to come. Onto the headline performance as we were thrown into opening number “Battle Box 001” with Martina Topley Bird singing in front of a myriad of explosive corporate imagery, blazing and burning the eyes in an effescent red.
